Humility, human, and humble all share the same root word, humus. When we are humble and human we lower ourselves in those moments accepting the humility and humiliation that comes with being human.

The quotes come from a variety of sources, but one that caught my attention was from Abraham Lincoln. We have to lower ourselves sometimes to find our way through living’s dense thicket and underbrush. It is here we find our wisdom and can discern the next possible step.

Humility is accepting that nothing comes with certainty. Discerning at this level allows us to look upwards and find the stars again as they help us on the journey called living. In these spaces, we seek the questions which open space rather than the answers so often fixed firmly in our beliefs.

I have not written a poem for some time, but as I wrote this appeared. The catalyst was the wonderful imagery from the pictures and quotes at the link. Nature has a way of showing us the way. It takes a Sabbath in our climate called winter.

It is the end of a busy week. It might be the busiest since I came home from Spokane. I don’t coach ice hockey any more, but I help in several ways. For example, I am helping a young man who coached with me several years ago get a hockey related business off the ground. I also facilitate coaching clinics which help coaches with their work. In Canada, this is a time of the year when hockey is busy. It is important to take a break, a Sabbath from the busyness and business.

I came across this poem by Hermann Hesse who is better known as an author of fiction such as Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Journey to the East. He was a wonderful writer of prose writing in a poetic and mystic voice.

The poem reminds me to stop and pause, to listen attentively to the world and my self. It is in the mindfulness that I hear the questions being asked by the world and me. It is in those silences that the world and I create together speaking to each other in richness in our silences.

Sometimes, when a bird cries out,
Or the wind sweeps through a tree,
Or a dog howls in a far off farm,
I hold still and listen a long time.

My soul turns and goes back to the place
Where, a thousand forgotten years ago,
The bird and the blowing wind
Were like me, and were my brothers.

My soul turns into a tree,
And an animal, and a cloud bank.
Then changed and odd it comes home
And asks me questions. What should I reply?

The link contains a wonderful quote from Maya Angelou and an article explaining the importance of letting go to bring peace to one’s self.

A lack of control over the world and our self feels good. We become explorers rather than chasers who hunt and gather. The hunting and gathering become part of the exploring. When we pause and are present in living, the world embraces us. We create in the embrace that follows as part of a larger community. There is not a forcing, but an ease with which we live life.

I enjoy Mark Twain. He had a way with words and wisdom. We live life to explore, dream, and discover. We can close our eyes and be transported to whatever place we want in the world, perhaps the banks of the Mississippi.

Marcel Proust said that “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Imagine opening your eyes and seeing the world afresh in each new experiencing. To see the extraordinary in the ordinary would be have new eyes, exploring and discovering the world anew. We should catch the trade winds and leave those safe harbours, if only in our imagination.

We each have a child in us. When we pause and take a moment to reflect, we find wonderful places waiting our exploration. That is the way the child in us would approach living, as exploring the nooks and crannies we discover in living.

The quote provided in the link is from Paulo Coehlo. He suggests by keeping contact with the child in us we keep in touch with living the life we are living. We gaze upon and explore in the living as we undertake it. What is most exciting is living in the company of others and in the world.